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Letter From The Boss...

To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country. However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You've seen my big home at last years Christmas party. I'm sure; all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.

However, what you don't see is the back story.

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business -- hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the Goodwill store extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don't. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a
1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden -- the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... You never realize the back story and the sacrifices I've made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don't understand ... to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep.

So where am I going with all this?

It's quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem any more.

Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.

If you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about....

I've run businesses my entire life and put my money at risk to do it. At no time would I have ever traded places with my employees. I treated them well and they worked hard. A few times along the way I paid them more than I made from their work, but for the most part I benefited much more than they did. It's important for every society to encourage those who create jobs. However, that does not justify the massive shift that has occurred in this country to reduce the return on labor and to favor the return on capital. Salaries at the top have increased ten times faster than salaries in the middle and faster still than salaries at the bottom. One impact of this war on labor has been the collapse of our consumer driven economy and the collapse of the jobs that were generated. We now look like a banana republic and are paying the price. Massive concentration of wealth destroys an economy; it doesn't stimulate it. We have gone too far.

I've run businesses my entire life and put my money at risk to do it. At no time would I have ever traded places with my employees. I treated them well and they worked hard. A few times along the way I paid them more than I made from their work, but for the most part I benefited much more than they did. It's important for every society to encourage those who create jobs.

I think that's what the 1st post is saying - correct me if I am incorrect.

However, that does not justify the massive shift that has occurred in this country to reduce the return on labor and to favor the return on capital. Salaries at the top have increased ten times faster than salaries in the middle and faster still than salaries at the bottom.

It's a matter of respect for others - I believe we saw a glimpse of that in the VPOTUS race recently, which I believed you welcomed. Again you may correct my assumption.

One impact of this war on labor has been the collapse of our consumer driven economy and the collapse of the jobs that were generated. We now look like a banana republic and are paying the price. Massive concentration of wealth destroys an economy; it doesn't stimulate it. We have gone too far.

Massive concentration of wealth destroys an economy; it doesn't stimulate it. We have gone too far.

Thank you, Karl Marx.

Kind of, hmmm...ironic maybe, that someone who attended a Swiss boarding school before moving on to the Ivy League would be wringing his hands over the very principle that provided for his education. Don't bother with your parents' particular "back story" as Buzz won't be impressed with how they were able to accumulate wealth.

BTW, the notion that wealth is zero sum...i.e. wealth is finite and one person's accumulation of wealth prevents another person's accumulation, has long been debunked as Malthusian claptrap. But if you want to cleanse your soul and confess that the cost of your education meant that 10 inner city kids couldn't go to a state school because your parents took money out of their parents' hands, then I'm all ears. The confessional is open.

Kind of, hmmm...ironic maybe, that someone who attended a Swiss boarding school before moving on to the Ivy League would be wringing his hands over the very principle that provided for his education. Don't bother with your parents' particular "back story" as Buzz won't be impressed with how they were able to accumulate wealth.

BTW, the notion that wealth is zero sum...i.e. wealth is finite and one person's accumulation of wealth prevents another person's accumulation, has long been debunked as Malthusian claptrap. But if you want to cleanse your soul and confess that the cost of your education meant that 10 inner city kids couldn't go to a state school because your parents took money out of their parents' hands, then I'm all ears. The confessional is open.

My Swiss boarding school education was paid by a combination of Union Carbide -- since there were no English speaking schools in Sicily where my father was working -- and my father from his engineer's salary of $33,000/year. Princeton at that time was $3000/year, which was less than boarding school. My father paid the first three years of tuition and board. I paid all personal expenses (meals, clothes, books, etc) with my jobs cooking hamburgers and working in the library. In my senior year and for graduate school I was on a full fellowship.

My father was actually the fourth of 7 children. His father, a drunk, was killed when my dad was 10. The family survived in part because of surplus food distributions that supplemented what my grandmother could buy with her $8/week salary as a waitress. My father worked his way through college in three years at Syracuse and was drafted into the Manhattan Project (atomic bomb) during WWII. After the war he helped pay for one brother to go to pharmacy school and another to go the college as an engineer.

My father was very successful in his career, but never wealthy. One reason was that my mother had a stroke at the age of 44 leaving her paralyzed and aphasic. Costs of her care soon exceeded the lifetime maximums covered by medical insurance and by the time of her death 26 years later my father had spent almost $1 million on her care. He died at the age of 79 after a 14 year fight with cancer, leaving an "estate" of about $200,000 after the sale of his house.

My father never forgot where he came from. He regularly gave 20% or more of his gross income in charitable contributions (much of that in contributions to such "radical" groups as the Southern Law Conference and Planned Parenthood) and regularly voted to increase his own taxes to provide better education and medical benefits for all regardless of income.

I also try not to forget where I came from and try not to forget how blessed I was by the hard work of my parents. I have tried to pass on a similar ethic to my children. Each went to the best schools. Each paid a large percentage of his and her expenses, even though I could have paid it all, and each was raised with a recognition of how their lives have been benefited by privilege and how they have a responsibility for helping others to share more of those same benefits.

By the way, there is nothing Marxist in my attitudes. I would call it enlightened self interest. Few of us actually "earn" what we have on our own. We depend on a healthy economy, a strong educational system, a sophisticated communication and transportation infrastructure, etc., to provide us the opportunity to earn our livings. We also depend on the existence of a strong labor pool able to produce the services and goods we need, to buy the goods and services we sell, and to produce the creative leaders of the future. History suggests that a permanent class of the wealthy leads to the downfall of economies and to political and social turmoil. I believe we have been headed in that direction for the last 20 years and that it's time to change.

Don't bother with your parents' particular "back story" as Buzz won't be impressed with how they were able to accumulate wealth.

I wouldn't bother giving my own "back story." Not worth my time.

I think that this clown beating his employees over the head with it and threatening their livelihoods with being put out on the street during such hard economic times because he is so upset over the political climate is thoughtless and self serving. If I worked for him, my resume would begin circulating before the day was over.

Last edited by Buzz; 01-09-2009 at 09:44 AM.

"For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required." -- Luke 12:48

When think about stimulating an economy I often think that the money should go to people who stimulate the economy. People who give back what they take in. Small buisiness owners are the biggest part of our job force.
I don't believe you can stimulate the economy by giving people who produce nothing more money The auto industry and banking industry atre a great example,
There is a universal principle in life which by the way Jeffs dad practiced called "giving". Everything in life is based on giving and recieving. Weather your talking about physics, or relationships or the economy.
The world revolves around it.
The dead sea is dead because it takes but never gives
We would die if we only took in and never put out.
Giving money to lazy people and organizations who only take and never give will give you the dead sea effect.

By the way, there is nothing Marxist in my attitudes. I would call it enlightened self interest.

Call it whatever you want, but the notions you put forth in your first post were entirely Marxist...from the notion that the accumulation of excess wealth is bad to the notion that wealth accumulation must naturally come at the expense of others...straight outta "Das Kapital."

History suggests that a permanent class of the wealthy leads to the downfall of economies and to political and social turmoil. I believe we have been headed in that direction for the last 20 years and that it's time to change.

Can you provide some examples in history of the above in a market-based/capitalist economy (i.e. no archaic examples like Tsarist Russia)?

Do you believe the wealth in the world is finite? If you wisely say no, then how can accumulation of "excess" (that's sure in the eye of the beholder) wealth have a necessary adverse effect on others?